The following only counts for 20.3.2004 - as my computer and especially optical drives in it changes constantly.

That is how it looks, should be black/blue but it's black/purple. I do still not have enough space for optical drives so I put some on top of it in firewire/usb2 enclosures.

rdgrimes asked what I use the drives for, so here you go:

Also marked what drives I've bought myself, the others is review samples.

on top of the case in enclosures:Toshiba SD-M1612: hacked and allows reading of DVDR/RW media at 16x speed, so far no discs have been read without drops in speed. Use it as a torture test to see how good the readability of a written DVDR/RW disc is. Most discs have huge bumps and slowdowns, but a few disc types written with a few selected writers only have a slight drop in speed at the very end of the disc. bought by meLG GSA-4040B: The only drive I have that is able to write DVD-RAM, and that's basically what I use it for. Creating DVD-RAM discs for testing purposes. bought by meMediagear (BTC DRW-1004IM): It have some nice media bays in the front I transfer the images from the SD card used in my HP Photosmart 850 camera with this unit - not much use beside that.And finally a removable harddrive bay - sometimes I need some data from old harddrives I've laying around.......

Inside case, from top:BTC DRW1008IM: Under review nowNU DDW-081/82: Just reviewed, waiting to be shipped back to NU Europe :sad: Very nice for writing DVD+R at 8x, especially ricohjpnr01.NEC ND-2500A: Nice DVD-Writer for both DVD-R and DVD+R, my favourite for dirt cheap DVD-R discs like princo and Lead data bought by meLite-On LDW-411S. My K-Probe PI/PO measurement drive. bought by meMemorex dual-X1 (Pioneer DVR-106D): It's just sitting there I use it mainly to write my princo 1x discs(bought 200 dirt cheap at sale) at 2x (using hacked firmware) with superb quality ( PI avg below 10 and PO below 0.x).Pioneer DVR-107D: Just sitting there at the moment - don't use it much as I wasn't very satisfied with it (could be just my sample though). Best writer for writing Verbatim/mitsubishi 8x DVD+R though.Lite-On LTR-52246S: My C1/C2 K-Probe scanner. bought by mePlextor PX-708A: Just because it's plextor......... Use it for reference only. I do not use it much really as I do not like it that much - It's not particulary good at anything actually. Plextools is still nice though bought by meLite-On LDW-811S: Good allrounder, nice CD-Writing quality. Not as bad as some is whining it is........JLMS XJ-HD165H. Using it to make the transfer graphs for my reviews. bought by me

Emergency floppydrive It's in there if I need it, had to connect it to get the raid drivers loaded when installing xp. I plan to mod the case a bit with more 3.5" bays in the bottom - I'll place them so that the 12x12cm fan in the front cools them down.

And there is the 3.5" bays I've added at the top - holds 4 harddrives with some air between each. Gets cooled by the 12x12cm fan behind them blowing the hot air out of the case.

Yes I know it's messy in there, and it doesn't matter for me. Earlier I tried to tie up cables etc but I change my computer stuff nearly weekly so that is to much hassle to do every time.

And thanks to the 12x12cm fans and the 9,2x9,2cm CPU fan it's also less noisy compared to before, the noisiest things in there now is my harddrives and the radeon 9800 PRO fan (Still not quiet like my laptop tough).

LOL this is just so insane.... I wonder where you found that case. After I did some research on the net I figured that the only way to fit everything in a case, I had to throw out my SCSI setup... (just have 4 opticals in my main system right now).

Anyhow... you should do something about the messy cables

What does it sound like when you insert discs in all drives and make them euh do something at a high speed? :o

Originally posted by OC-Freak Emergency floppydrive It's in there if I need it, had to connect it to get the raid drivers loaded when installing xp.

I've been curious why the "next generation" OS is so reliant on obsolete technology to even use it.Wouldn't ya think that it'd be a good idea to search a cdrom or flash disk or USB device for the drivers?

You will need a higher rated PSU when you initially turn the PC on. Motors draw upto (but not limited to) 10x their rated current when they start. Even though you only use 200W when operational, when you initially start it may easily draw 400W.But decent PSU's can handle overload for short periods of time regardless. Cheap PSU's often spread capacitor juice everywhere when overloaded, even for an instant.

Can I ask why you didn't like the antec power supply?

They seem to be in abundance over here, and up until now I've been using a generic 450W PSU that came with the case.

The Fan in the PSU sounds like it's starting to go, and the exhaust smells a tad off, so time to replace methinks before it goes "Pop" in a cloud of white disgusting smoke.

I'm not paying exorbitant prices for a generic PSU, so I'll be paying and exorbitant price for a decent quality PSU

Debro: As I already wrote: There was a peak of 235Watt when the computer was turned on.

The antec 550Watt TrueControl that I had was:

1: VERY expensive (Waaaaay overpriced)2: Would not work without the truecontrol unit - so I had to use it if I wanted or not.3: It wasn't that quiet.4: most important - it interfered with my TV. Made picture distortions.....

In my opinion Enermax is the best powersupplies tightly followed by fortron source, I also like flowerpower (sold as a lot other brands as well).

Originally posted by OC-Freak [B]Debro: As I already wrote: There was a peak of 235Watt when the computer was turned on.

The antec 550Watt TrueControl that I had was:

1: VERY expensive (Waaaaay overpriced)2: Would not work without the truecontrol unit - so I had to use it if I wanted or not.3: It wasn't that quiet.4: most important - it interfered with my TV. Made picture distortions.....

In my opinion Enermax is the best powersupplies tightly followed by fortron source, I also like flowerpower (sold as a lot other brands as well). [/B]

Apologies, I shouldn't scan posts at work

It's interesting that the power supply was causing High frequency interference like that. I'd suggest that they probably haven't really done much over other power supplies, other than switch at higher frequencies than other PSU's. And then failing to filter the input source (but filtering on the output side, being the PC).